Traditional Chinese Medicine-based biological extracts, especially echinacea and honey, significantly alleviate pain and improve symptoms in oral lichen planus patients.
The researchers conducted a systematic search across PubMed, Embase, and Web of Science to identify randomized controlled trials analyzing the effectiveness of TCM-based biological extracts on oral lichen planus. A network meta-analysis was subsequently performed on selected trials, with the extracts' effectiveness ranked based on their Surface Under the Cumulative Ranking (SUCRA) scores.
In the findings, 22 articles met the criteria and were included in the meta-analysis. Direct comparisons showed that the TCM-based biological extracts had a significant impact on reducing patients' pain, as reflected in the visual analog scale (VAS) scores. Furthermore, the network meta-analysis revealed that specific extracts like chamomile, curcumin, echinacea, and honey were particularly beneficial in lowering the patients' clinical scores. More specifically, chamomile, echinacea, and honey were potent in managing the VAS scores, reflecting their role in pain relief.
